Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Preparing garden beds

Originally meant as an experimental (uh, I'm not really expanding my beds, I said to myself) sort of plot, I decided to incorporate them into permanent beds to expand my (rudimentary) rotation scheme. Also, as the holly hedge near my main vegetable garden has gotten larger, my main vegetable garden is even more shaded in the winter than it used to be. It's a great summer plot, OK in fall, but only gets several hours of sun in the late afternoon, even now, in early March.

So, to have a sunnier space for late winter and early spring crops, my satellite garden is great. Last spring, a hungry young woodchuck was a nemesis, and was relocated, but a relative has now appeared, and I'm determined to find a better place for him/her (the Havahart trap is set).

The unseasonably mild weather has made preparing beds for carrots, beets, chard, and potatoes (as well as preparing warm-season beds) a joy. What fun to be able to be out there digging in early March!

Since this is the second year of serious cultivation for most of these beds, they still have lots of clayey soil, so more compost, composted manure, and mushroom compost is needed. I'd limed all the beds in the fall (our soil is quite acidic), so hopefully, that will help, too. I'm afraid this is all very unscientific (not recommended) and I DO need to do a soil test.

About this blog

My blog posts span two gardens over the last decade, one in the Piedmont of South Carolina and the other in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Our gardens have been increasingly home to native plants, birds, small mammals, and insects of all sorts. My gardening companion (my husband) is equally the gardener.

Woody, our rescue Golden, is now our fellow gardener, now solely in the mountains of Western North Carolina. He follows his previous fellow goldens (and my former gardening assistants): Mocha and Chessie. They bring life to our gardens.